The invention relates to a titanium clad steel plate and the process for producing same wherein a nickel sheet is interposed between plates of titanium and steel and the composite is reduced by hot rolling.
Presently, for many applications, the most commercially successful method of producing titanium clad steel is through an explosive bonding process. Such a process has, however, serious drawbacks which attend the utilization of explosives with their inherent dangers and safety requirements. Furthermore, such bonds seen in cross-section are generally of wave form and thus the depth of the bond varies significantly from crest to trough with a resultant increased requirement for the cladding metal.
Other than the explosive bonding process for making titanium clad steel, it is known to utilize a commercially pure nickel sheet as the bonding metal between the titanium and the steel. However, steel so produced has not been sufficiently ductile for many uses desired of the titanium clad steel.
Thus a need exists for a titanium clad steel having comparable or better physical and mechanical properties than, and otherwise being competitive with, explosive bonded titanium clad products already on the market and, to this end, a reliable and reproducible method for producing same which assures uniform bond characteristics is required.